


Gay Old Times

by imanemostan



Category: Fall Out Boy, Mindless Self Indulgence, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Angst, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Homophobia, LGBT characters, M/M, Mentions of Sex, Mentions of Smut, Past Rape/Non-con, Transphobia, homophobic slang, lgbt café, shy!Gerard, trans!tyler, transphobic slang
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-08-18 23:34:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 11
Words: 17,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8179993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imanemostan/pseuds/imanemostan
Summary: Frank Iero lives in an extremely homophobic town, where he is sure that he and his friends are the only LGBT+ people there.That is until he finds out about a hidden LGBT+ café and meets Gerard Way and Gerard's friends. Threats get worse and worse for the LGBT+ community, and everyone has to go back into the closet, in secret.





	1. Chapter 1

Frank speed walked out of his apartment and onto the streets of New Jersey. He walked into a local café by him and to the counter.

"Hello, may I help you?" A woman with jet black hair and bright red lipstick with a nametag saying 'Lindsey' on it greeted.

Frank looked at the menu above her head and back to her. "Yeah, can I get a black coffee?"

"Would you like any sugar or creamer with that?"

"No."

"Okay then... Name please?"

He cleared his throat. "Frank Iero." Lindsey paused for a moment.

"Are you Frank? The Frank? Frank Iqueero?" He nodded.

"The gayest." He stopped and realized where he was. Frank felt all eyes looking at him.

Another employee stared at him and spoke,"we can't serve you, or your kind. Please get out." He said.

Frank scoffed and left the café. Lindsey ran out behind him. "Frank, I'm so sorry about that. We both know that this is a homophobic neighborhood."

"It's fine. I get that a lot. Don't apologize."

"I should make this up to you. There's this secret café one of my friends told me about, strictly for LGBT+ people. It's apparently really good and accepting, you should try it out."

Frank hummed in thought. "I guess I could try going. Where is it?"

"It's a few miles from here, called Gay Old Times. Open from 9 AM to 9 PM everyday, but weekends are twenty-four hours."

"Just tell an employee named Jimmy that Lindsey sent you."

Frank agreed and Lindsey went back into the café.

-

A day later, he parked his car in front of a building that said 'Gay Old Times'.

The inside looked like a regular coffee shop, just with cheesy puns. An employee, as if out of nowhere, popped up in front of Frank. "Hello, welcome to Gay Old Times! How are you today, person?"

"Uh... I'm fine."

"Name, pronouns, age, gender, and sexuality?"

"Frank, he or him, 21, male, and bisexual." The employee wrote his information on a nametag and handed it to him.

"Just stick this on the front of your shirt, people will get the message! Have a gay old time!"

He raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "Whatever. Wait, um, do you know anybody who works here named Jimmy?"

"I'm Jimmy! Who is this motherfucker, Kitty?"

The employee, or Kitty, smiled at him. "This is Frank!"

"You're Jimmy?" He nodded. "I'm Frank, Lindsey sent me here."

"Oh fuck, that fucking bitch. Of course she did. What did she need again?"

"Uh..."

"Kidding, it's cool. Just sit anywhere, we'll be with you in a minute."

"Okay."

Frank took his phone out of his pocket and texted in a group chat with his friends where he was, suggesting they come with him.

"Excuse me?" A slightly nasal voice interrupted Frank from texting.

The voice belonged to a person with dark hair and black eye makeup, dressed in black jeans and a Black Flag shirt. His nametag said  _'Gerard, 26, he/they, demiboy, gay'._

"Hi...?"

"Um, can I sit? Sorry if I'm bothering you."

Frank shook his head. "It's fine." He said. 

"Thanks... My friends should be here soon. I'll leave you alone when they come."

"It's cool, my friends are coming. They can talk to each other."

"Oh, yeah. I guess so."

Frank coughed. "I mean, unless you don't want to–"

"Frank! Yo!" A man walked into the coffee shop. "My name is Brendon, I'm twenty years old, he or him pronouns, and I'm polysexual as fuck! Also, I'm a dude."

Kitty giggled and wrote his information down, and he stuck it onto his shirt.

"Frank, the dudes will be here in a second with the no gender dudes."

Frank smirked. "That's great."

Gerard stood up. "Your friends are here now, sorry to bother you."

"You can stay if you want." Frank smiled.

"Oh, okay. Thanks."

Soon, both groups of friends came into the coffee shop. "Hey Gerard." One said.

"What's up Tyler?"

"Notice anything different?" The guy, Tyler, asked. Gerard shook his head. "Look at my chest."

"What... Oh my god! You got top surgery without me knowing?"

"I'm a terrible person, I know. I surprised everyone."

"But this is a really transphobic area?" Frank questioned.

"I had to go out of state to get it."

"Is that where you were for a week?" Tyler nodded. "Yep."

Frank smiled. "That's great that you got it. Oh, by the way, I'm Frank, those are my friends Josh, Brendon, Ryan, Patrick, Joe, and Andy."

"Nice to meet you guys, these people are Tyler, Jenna, Pete, Bob, Ray, and my little brother Mikey."

"Stop calling me little Gerard, I swear to God."

"You mean you swear to _gay_?"

Mikey rolled his eyes. "Dude, please stop."

"In your dreams." Gerard replied.

"Shit, Steve texted me. We gotta run Gee."

"Oh no. Okay, I'll see you around Frank." 

"Oh, bye..."

-

The next time he went to the café, he saw Gerard again. "Hey Gerard!" 

Gerard turned around and saw Frank. "Hey Frank."

"How are you? I haven't seen you in a month."

"Well we've only met once... Uh, I'm okay. How are things going for you?"

Frank sighed. "Not so well. I just got fired for liking guys and my parents found out, so now I have no idea where to go." 

Gerard eyes widened. "Oh god, that's terrible. I'm so fucking sorry Frank."

"It's fine."

"You say that a lot."

"Say what a lot?"

"'It's fine.' Are you sure it's fine?"

Frank shook his head. "It isn't. It's really stressful. I have nowhere to go now except for stay with different friends at different times."

"If it's alright with you, would you mind me giving you my number, so we can talk more?"

He nodded. "Sure thing." Frank wrote down his number on a piece of paper and handed it to Gerard. "Call me anytime."

"Great. Here's mine, just in case."

"Thanks. Hey, how come I've never seen you around here besides this place before?"

Gerard shrugged. "I just moved here." 

"Cool, I can show you around this shithole sometime."

"Sounds fun. I can do it tomorrow around noon."

"I can't do it at noon. Just to be safe, can we do it at a later time."

Gerard hesitantly replied with a yes. Frank asked if he could do it at around eight. Gerard agreed.

"I'll see you later, gotta run."

"Alright. See ya." 


	2. Chapter 2

The anxiousness built up in him. It was as if the ceilings were going to collapse, the floor was going to break apart, just because he was scared something would go wrong when he was showing Gerard around.

Like maybe people would assume they were together and try to endanger them. 

Who was Frank kidding, everybody in this homophobic shithole knew that he was the gayest bisexual to ever live.

They would automatically assume that he was dating any man he was with. Then he realized what Gerard's nametag said. 'Demiboy.' 

Demiboy. Frank didn't know every single gender out there and was completely open to learning. He opened his laptop and googled 'demiboy.'

_'A demiboy, also called demiguy, is someone whose gender identity is only partly male, regardless of their assigned gender at birth. They may or may not identify as another gender in addition to feeling partially a boy or man. They may also define their identity as both male and genderless (agender).'_

Frank raised an eyebrow. "Demiboy..."

He took his phone out of his pocket and dialed Gerard's contact. "...Hello?" 

"Hey Gerard, it's Frank. I wanted to know, since you're um... Demiboy... What are your pronouns?"

There was silence for a moment on the other line, then laughing. "What?"

"You remembered my gender, but not my pronouns on the nametag? What kind of man are you, Frank?"

"I'm a manly man, masculinity, yeah! I'm gonna go lift some weights, because I'm so masculine."

Gerard chuckled. "They or he."

"They or he... That's great, ten out of ten."

"Very meme, such funny."

"Oh God, that's such an outdated meme!" 

"I know. I'll be there in ten, by the way."

Frank shook his head. "No."

"What?"

"You don't have my address."

"Then what is it?"

"You know the apartments?"

"How specific Frank." Gerard said, sarcastically.

Frank rolled his eyes. "I mean the apartments by that one café."

"There are café's everywhere, Frank."

"Do you know Lindsey Ballato?"

"Uh, I've met her once or twice, why?"

"You know the café she works at?" He asked. There was a quiet 'mhm' on Gerard's line. "The apartments by that place?"

"Oh! That place. Yeah, of course."

"I live on the seventh floor. Room 5G."

"Awe man, I wanted you to live in 4G. I mean, you have 4G on your phone, right?"

"No, not the puns. Anything but those."

"I'll be there in fifteen, actually. It's gonna take longer than I thought it would."

"It's fine, I'll wait."

-

Gerard showed up at his door at around 8:30 PM. "Hey." Is what they said as soon as Frank opened the door.

"Hey, come in." Frank said, stepping aside for Gerard to come in.

Gerard smiled. "Thanks."

"No problemo, por favor."

"That means no problem, please."

Frank shrugged. "Whatever." 

"Okay. So, when do you wanna go?"

"Do you wanna go now?"

"It's New Jersey."

"Water is wet."

"It's dangerous as fucking hell to be outside during the night in Jersey."

"Let's go out of state, then."

"Um, no."

"Weren't you the one who came up with us going out and about the city at night?"

"How about we just go to the café?"

Frank nodded. "Well, that's good too." He said and they began walking out the door. "Where d'ya live, Gerard?"

"Two minutes from the café."

"That's cool. Where are you from?"

"Summit, you?"

"Belleville."

Gerard shoved their hands into their jacket pockets. "Sweet." They walked to Frank's car. "My car is here, too."

"Are you a driver or a passenger?"

"Passenger."

Frank scoffed, as if it was the most obvious thing ever. "Well, I think that answers your question."

Gerard shrugged. "Okay." 

As soon as they started driving, Frank turned on the radio. "Ew, I fucking hate this shitty trash you call music. What the fuck is this?"

"It's apparently a Justin Bieber song. May I change it?"

"Hell yes. I have a few CD's in an organizer next to your seat."

Gerard looked next to them and opened it. He opened a Black Flag CD case and put it in the player. The song  _Paralyzed_ started to play.

"You are amazing. Hands down my favorite person right now for turning that song on, Gerard."

Gerard looked down, flustered. "Oh, I-I guess." Frank's jaw dropped.

"You're blushing!"

"Sorry." They apologized immediately.

Frank shook his head. "It's fine– besides, it's pretty adorable."

Gerard looked at Frank in shock. "I'm adorable?" Frank nodded.

"You're adorable."

"Well thanks." Gerard grinned. 

"We're here."

Frank unbuckled his seatbelt opened his door, Gerard doing the same thing. "Here, let me get that." Frank said and held out his hand to help them out.

"What a gentleman." 

"You're so very welcome, M'person." 

"M'person?"

"Well I couldn't say 'sir', or 'M'lady'."

Gerard snickered. "That's true, but just stick with 'Gerard' for now."

"Alright, M'Gerard."

"Gerard!"

"M'Gerard."

Frank opened the door for Gerard. "M'Gerard."

"Such a gentleman, I'm telling you."

Kitty waved to them. "Same thing as last time?"

"Yep!" Gerard was handed a nametag that said 'Gerard, They/He, Gay.' 

Kitty eyed the two. "Are you guys on a date?"

Gerard turned red and Frank smirked. "N-no, not that I'm aware of." Gerard stuttered.

"Awe, that would've been cute. Well, enjoy your stay here." She waved.

Frank turned to Gerard. "Uh, would you have liked this to be a date?"

Gerard played with the hem of his shirt. "I mean, if you'd like... I don't know..."

"Well?"

"Are you asking me out?" Frank nodded. "Oh, in that case, um, Kitty, we– I– uh..."

"It is a date." Frank said. Kitty's face brightened and she ushered them to the counter. 

She handed the two pins that said 'On A Date'. "Wear this so people know you're not available right now."

Gerard pinned the pin to their shirt, Frank copying him. "So, where do you wanna sit?"

"That table in the corner looks okay."

"Let's go." Frank said, taking Gerard's hand into his and walking to the table. They sat down opposite of each other.

Gerard looked at Frank for the first time since they walked into the café. "You look nice tonight." He complimented.

"You look fantastic." Frank admired.

"Wow, thanks." Gerard hesitantly reached their hand over to Frank's hand and held it, like he was doing earlier.

Frank smiled at Gerard and brushed his thumb over Gerard's fingers, and raised it up to his lips to kiss it. 

He turned red for the millionth time that night and looked at Frank's hand. "Fuck, you have a lot more tattoos than I realized."

"I'm tattooed almost everywhere."

"They're gorgeous. It's just like little works of art on your skin. Like you're the canvas and the ink fits perfectly and– oh my God, I'm sorry I'm rambling."

"Hey, it's fine, keep going."

They looked back at Frank and then his tattoos. "The tattoos tell stories, and creatively too. The different colors are so beautiful."

"Do you have any tattoos? You seem very fond of them."

Gerard shook his head. "God no. I'm terrified of needles. I can't go to the doctors without acting like a little baby. Mikey has to hold my hand when I get shots."

"I'm sorry. Mikey is your brother, right?"

"Yeah, I'm surprised you remembered."

"If I can remember your gender, I can remember your brother."

"If you can't remember my pronouns, you can remember my brother."

Frank crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. "Touché."

"Hey, do ya want anything?" They asked suddenly.

Frank nodded. "I'll get it for you, if you want anything too."

"I can do it." They assured Frank and stood up, walking to Jimmy, who was mumbling something about hating Jimmy Page, behind the counter.

"Hey, Jimmy. Can I order?"

"Yeah, one second. Go to your table Gee."

When Gerard got back, Frank was grinning. "What?"

"I'm gonna call you Gee." 

Gerard shrugged. "Go ahead."

"Hey bitches, welcome to Gay Old Times, coffee and coffee for Gerard?"

"Four more cups for me, actually." They said. 

Frank chuckled. "Ten for me."

"So, whaddya want?"

"Two things of coffee, and I want a sandwich."

Jimmy sniggered. "With mayo?"

"Why mayo?"

"Because mayo tastes like sem–"

"– Please stop."

"What type of sandwich?"

Gerard closed his eyes. "I'm not hungry anymore. Just coffee."

"Yeah, I'll have coffee too."

"Coming right up." He walked away.

Gerard frowned. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Did you lose your appetite?"

"No, not really. I'm not hungry."

Gerard smiled. "That's fine." He looked at the table cloth. "These tables are rainbow." 

"Is this a gay table? For us?"

"There's a reason these tables are gay." Gerard muttered.

Frank started laughing. "My fucking God, Gerard. You are an icon."

-

The pair went back into Frank's car. Gerard turned to Frank. "I had a good time tonight." 

"I'm glad. I was really nervous about tonight." Frank said, and slowly put his hand on Gerard's thigh.

Gerard leaned in, now inches closer to Frank's face. Frank closed the gap and kissed Gerard. He lifted his legs over the gear and straddled Gerard. 

Gerard placed his arms around Frank's neck. It was when Frank bit their lip and his tongue was inside their mouth that they shifted uncomfortably.

Frank got the message and pulled away from Gerard. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, of course." 

"No you aren't. What's wrong?"

Gerard shook their head. "I just– I just, it's nothing. God, I'm such a pussy for stopping you."

"You're not, what did I do? Am I rushing things too quickly? Did I do something you didn't like? Oh God, I made you uncomfortable."

"It wasn't you, I just... I'm not really comfortable going that far yet."

Frank raised an eyebrow. "Are you a virgin?"

"No... It's worse than being a virgin. I'm just..."

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"Okay. Can we just go?"

Frank nodded and climbed back over to his seat. "So, uh... Do you play any instruments?"

Gerard looked out the window. "I can play a little guitar, I'm not that good. I can sing a little bit, but I'm pretty bad if you ask me."

"Can you sing for me?" 

"No."

"I'll sing with you." Frank persuaded. "I'd play my guitar but one; I don't have it and, two; I'm driving." Gerard started humming a melody. "Is that David Bowie?"

"Yeah, Queen Bitch."

Frank chuckled. "Title Of forty five years goes to David Bowie." 

"Honestly, I can agree. Is there any other title that can beat it?"

"Nope. It goes to Queen Bitch by David Bowie... So, are you a fan-demiboy of Bowie?"

"Only the biggest." They claimed. "I'm the biggest fan, actually." 

"I can't argue, can I?"

"Only if you want me to leave this car and jump off that bridge." 

Frank gasped. "You wouldn't."

"Yeah, my brother would kill me. But I'd already be dead so, yeah, I would."

"Nice Gerard."

"Very nice."

-

Gerard walked to his car, Frank very close to him. "I'll see you later, okay Gee?" Frank whispered when Gerard sat in the front seat of their car.

"I'll see you. We should do this again, sometime." They murmured, leaning close to Frank.

They kissed and pulled away after a few moments. Frank checked if anyone was around them. "Nobody's around. I'll see you." He said, and hugged them.

"Bye Frankie."

"Frankie?"

"If you're calling me Gee, then I'm calling you Frankie."

Frank smiled. "Stay safe, Gee."

"You too, Frankie." He said, watching him go into the elevator, up to his room.

As soon as Frank was out of sight, they drove away.

-

Frank went straight to his bedroom and fell asleep quickly. "G'dnight, Gee." He mumbled before sleeping.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> possible triggers in this chapter

Gerard woke up in a good mood. They moved the covers off of them. He stood up and walked into his kitchen, where their roommate Pete was with his friend Lindsey.

"Hey Pete, hey... Lindsey?" She nodded. They waved at the duo and walked to the coffee machine.

Pete leaned on the counter next to Gerard. "So, you seem happy today. What happened?"

"Uh..."

Pete gasped. "They got laid!"

Gerard's eyes widened. "No!"

Lindsey smirked. "They went on a date with a guy. Kitty told me last night."

"No!" 

Gerard blushed and nodded. "Yeah..."

"You have his number, I'm assuming. Text him!"

"Oh shit, I didn't! I need coffee, though."

Pete groaned. "I'll make the coffee, you text that son of a beautiful bitch that made you happy."

"Okay, okay, stop pressuring me. I'll text him." Gerard went into his room and picked his phone up, unplugging it from the charger.

He texted Frank.

Gerard: Morning Frank! :)

No reply. He sighed. "It's nine in the morning, he couldn't possibly text back at this time, let alone be up–" they were interrupted by the beep of their phone.

Frank: hey gee

He texted back. "That's a first." Gerard mumbled. Next thing they knew, he was lying on the couch, blushing like a maniac with coffee holding their phone.

Frank: wanna hang out today?

Gerard quickly texted back a 'yes.' They decided that they would hang out at Gerard's apartment.

"Hey Peter Pan, can you and Lindsey leave the apartment at eleven?"

Pete glared at them. "Don't call me Peter Pan, and no."

"Yeah, let's go vest shopping." Lindsey suggested. "We can also look for some hot guys..."

"You had me at hot guys. We are leaving right now to go vest shopping and sight seeing."

Lindsey shrugged. "Sure. Let's go."

Pete grabbed her wrist and dragged her out of the apartment.

"Okay, Gerard, you can do this... Just clean up a little. Clean up your look, clean up, clean up."

They started to pick up dirty clothes and even cleaned the toilets. He made their bed, and Pete's bed. They washed their hands and showered, then put on sweatpants.

"He won't care if I have on sweatpants, I hope." They checked the time.  _11:00 AM._ "Oh God, he decided not to come because he doesn't like me and–" 

Somebody knocked on the door. They opened it, revealing it to be Frank. "I didn't abandon you, don't worry." He assured him and walked inside. "Ooh, nice place Gerard."

"I cleaned up a bit... A lot."

Frank smiled. "That's really sweet. You look cute in your sweatpants."

"Really? Thanks, do you need me to take your jacket? If not, you can just put it on the couch. Or you can keep it on. Maybe take it off along with everything el– along with your shoes."

Frank raised his eyebrows in amusement. "I'll put it on the couch." He took it off and set it where he said he'd put it. "No problems so far." He said and stood on his toes to kiss Gerard's forehead.

Gerard considered if it was too early to ask if they were dating. They'd only been out on one date, does that even count? Maybe not. 

Frank noticed something was wrong. "What's wrong?" 

"Nothing, just a little anxious– I mean excited– or–"

"Don't worry, you don't have to be anxious around me. Everything's okay."

Gerard smiled. "So, what do you wanna do?"

"No idea."

They ended up cuddling on Gerard and Pete's sofa, watching  _Rocky Horror Picture Show._  "If our town saw this, they'd cry."

"Imagine them watching this." Gerard chuckled, Frank wrapped his arm around Gerard's waist, which was pressed up against him. Basically, Gerard as a whole was pressed up against him.

Pete and Lindsey carried bags and bags anywhere they could hold them. Pete saw a hot man and got a boner, so as Lindsey suggested, he tried carrying a bag with his boner.

He failed. The pair walked into his apartment. Gerard and Frank turned around and saw Pete.

"Aren't you that guy from the café?" Pete asked Frank.

Lindsey smacked his arm. "Well, no shit, Sherlock. What a fucking detective. I'm so sorry Gerard, I didn't realize that he'd still be over. Bad idea coming back. Pete, we're leaving."

"Wait, aren't you that chick from the café that didn't let me order because I am a flaming homosexual?"

Lindsey nodded. "You're bisexual."

"Shh, don't tell them. I'll be burnt at the stake if they find out."

"I would, too."

"Unfortunately, Lindsey isn't a raging homosexual like the rest of us. She's straight as an arrow."

Frank laughed. "Guys are hot, I see why she's straight."

"You have a point." 

"I'll leave you to it. Just don't fuck on my bed." Pete warned. "Or else."

Gerard bit his lip. "Pete, please don't. You know how I feel about that." He said, fumbling with their fingers.

Pete frowned. "God Gerard, I'm so sorry. I really didn't mean to, I was just making a joke, I'm so sorry." He bent over the couch and whispered harshly into Frank's ear, "I swear to God, if you make him do anything he doesn't want to I will straight up kill you–"

"Pete, he's fine. He wouldn't do anything like that." Gerard dismissed Pete. "I hope not." He added quietly to himself.

"Better be careful, I've got my eye on you." Pete and Lindsey left the apartment.

Gerard turned around to face Frank. "I'm sorry about him." 

"It's okay. If you don't mind me asking, what happened? Don't answer if–"

"My ex, Bert. He told people that I'm gay and he and those people... Did stuff... That I... Oh God, I'm sorry. I'm not gonna have a breakdown in front of you."

Frank's eyes softened. "Oh God, Gee. I didn't realize... I'm so sorry." Gerard hiccuped, and Frank realized that they were crying. "You can cry, Gerard. Let it out."

Gerard clinged to him, sobbing into his neck. "I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be sorry."

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." Gerard repeated.

Frank rubbed their back. "Bert told them and they might've... They did stuff... Without my consent, and Bert stood there and didn't try to help. They fucking payed him right after."

"Gerard, I'm so sorry. I have no idea why people would do that."

"You wouldn't do anything like that, right?" Frank's heart dropped at his words. Gerard asked it as if they didn't know whether to believe him or not.

"Never, ever." But they have every right to not trust him. "I'd never hurt you like that, Gerard."

They flashed an extremely genuine smile. "Thank you." He said and leaned in to peck Frank on the lips. 

Frank embraced Gerard, holding them in his arms. "You're safe as long as you're with me." He mumbled and noticed that Gerard fell asleep.

"Why do we keep falling asleep?" He asked himself.

-

Three hours later Frank woke up to him and Gerard in a blanket. "Why is this on us?" Frank looked around the room and saw Pete and Lindsey eating popcorn in chairs next to the sofa.

"You guys looked cold, so we put a blanket on you."

"Yeah, you guys look adorable by the way." 

Lindsey stood up. "Gotta run, Gabe needs me at the café. See you gays later." She held up a peace sign. "I should stop trying to be cool." She left the flat.

"I'll be in my room, don't drink my beers."

"I don't drink anymore." Gerard stated.

"I said that to Frank."

"I don't drink in front of people who don't drink– wait, you have beer? I mean, nevermind."

Pete looked as if he remembered something. "Hey, fedora, red hair, glasses–"

"Patrick Stump?"

"Who?"

"You were there when he came to the café with my friends. Is this him?" Frank handed Pete his phone that had a picture of Patrick.

Pete nodded. "Yeah, that's the guy I saw!"

"Did you talk to him?"

Pete shook his head. "Lindsey told me to carry my bag with the boner I got from hi–"

"Oh." Gerard said. "Now that's a strange thing to do."

"Yeah, why did you do that?" Frank agreed. 

"No idea. I'm gonna go to sleep, don't wake me up."

Gerard stood up, off the couch. "I'm hungry." 

"Didn't they have popcorn?" 

"So I stood up for nothing?"

Frank reached his arm to the coffee table where a bowl of popcorn was. "Yep. Come back, I'm cold."

Gerard laid back down on the couch, placing the bowl in front of him and the covers back onto him.

"Gerard," he sighed.

Gerard's eyes filled with worry. "What?"

"I need to be  _Frank_ with you." He said, then started laughing. 

Gerard threw a handful of popcorn at him. "You fucker!"

-

8:45 PM

The two walked out of the apartment. Gerard wondered if it was too early for them to ask Frank to spend the night.

Frank wondered the same thing. "Hey Gerard?" He was going to do it. "It might be really early and this may be considered rushing, but do you wanna spend the night at my place?"

"Oh! Uh, it's really homophobic over there."

"It's really homophobic over here too. So is that a no?" He asked, trying to hide his disappointment.

"No, I'm just saying. But well, uh, okay, yeah. Just let me text Pete."

A moment after, Pete texted 'ok have fun bye hoe.'

Gerard nodded and got into Frank's car. 'All I Want For Christmas' turned on.

"It's not even close to Christmas! We have more holidays to go through, what the fuck–" Frank stopped complaining when he heard Gerard singing along.

Frank smiled and decided to sing along with him. After the song ended, Gerard started clapping.

"Why are you clapping?" Frank asked.

"You're an amazing singer."

"So are you."

-

As soon as they walked into Frank's apartment, Gerard was freaking out.

"Gee, what's wrong?"

"I didn't bring anything." They said, panicking.

Frank left the room and came back to where Gerard was. "Here, clean pajamas and I have an extra toothbrush that I don't use in the bathroom."

Gerard grinned. "You know what, Gee?"

"Hm?"

"You have baby teeth."

"Shut up!"

"They're so tiny, though."

Gerard groaned. "Stop, I have perfectly normal teeth."

"Sure you do."

"Whatever, my teeth are normal."

-

They settled into Frank's bed. "Thanks for coming over." Frank said.

"Do you expect me to say thanks for having me?"

"Rude." Frank said. "Just go to sleep."

-

Frank woke up to an unusual feeling. He wasn't sure what it was at first, then realized it was just a huge lump of Gerard Way scrolling through Twitter on their phone.

"Good morning." Frank said.

Gerard looked over their shoulder. "Hey Frank." they said and kissed his cheek. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah, what about you?"

Gerard turned around. "Eh, I slept more than I'm usually able to, so I guess I slept well."

"So that's good?"

"Yeah, it is." 

Frank sat up. "Want something to eat? I can make pancakes."

"Yeah, that sounds great."

The two got out of the bed and into the kitchen. "Want me to make you coffee?" Frank asked. Gerard nodded. "Dark roast or light roast?"

"Please, I can only take so many insults."

"Did you just..."

"I did." 

"Super sweet or no sugar? There's no in between."

Gerard raised his hands up, almost forming a circle. "Super sweet, obviously."

"Sure thing." Frank said and added the sugar and creamer. "Here you go." He said.

Gerard started drinking from the cup as soon as they were handed it. "This is great coffee, how do you do it?"

"I just added a bunch of sugar and creamer, duh."

"It's great."

"You said that already."

"Sorry, Frank." They apologized.

Frank sat next to him. "It's alright, Gee." 

"So, what are you doing today?"

Frank shrugged. "I don't really go anywhere because they all discriminate against me because I believe that guys are fucking hot, and that I'd rather have my dick up a guy's ass rather than a gir– God, I'm so sorry Gerard."

Gerard turned red. "I love the way you explained your preference. It's ten out of ten."

"Really? Because I can go deeper into an explanation."

"Please don't." Gerard chuckled. 

Frank smirked. "I won't. For now." He said. "Uh, Gerard, can I um, kiss you?" Gerard nodded.

"Of course." He said, and Frank placed his hands on either side of Gerard's face.

They wrapped their arms around Frank's waist. The two leaned in and finally kissed. It was short and sweet, but perfect, and much better than their last one.

Frank smiled and looked into Gerard's eyes. "Is it considered rushing if I ask you to be my boyfriend or datemate?"

"I suppose so, but I'll say yes." Gerard said. "Either word is okay with me."

Frank leaned back in and continued kissing Gerard. Frank likes to rush into things, though. It was completely normal for him. He didn't know about Gerard, though. His datemate, boyfriend, whatever.

Gerard never rushed into things, this was new to him. Like when you first start driving a car. It's foreign, but exciting. This moment was perfect to him. He wanted everything to just stop for a moment so he could be stuck with Frank forever. 


	4. Chapter 4

When you are sitting down, then you stand up quickly; you start to feel light headed. When you spin around in a circle for about ten seconds, you'll feel  _extremely_ dizzy. When you complain about it, people tell to sit down, take a moment, or they help you get through being dizzy when it doesn't matter.

Even when being dizzy is not important. It happens to everyone, yet people care if somebody is dizzy. They take care of them as if they had broken an arm.

But when you talk about what happened that  _is_ important, then you're told to shut up and get over it because it doesn't matter, or they don't care; maybe even simply because they don't believe you.

That's also what people told Gerard when they spoke up about being raped. He was told that he wanted it, that they shouldn't think about it and that'll make them move on.

It was also what was running through Gerard's mind when the news came on, speaking about yet another asshole whom they called 'innocent white boy', and how he raped multiple women.

It triggered the memories Gerard had. "Hey, Gerard, are you okay?" Frank asked.

"I'm fine." He replied. "Just thinking."

Frank lifted his hand to rest on Gerard's knee. "Gee, what's wrong?"

"They're talking about rape and calling the guy innocent, and it's just..."

Frank held Gerard to his chest. "They're assholes. Especially Bert, especially anybody who tries to or rapes another person. Gerard, I'm so fucking sorry."

Gerard sniffled. "W-why is it always the m-men who call gay men f-faggots that end up r-raping other men? Does that make it o-okay? Do they think the victim would fucking enjoy it? Because no, t-they don't. At a-all."

"I'm sorry, Gerard."

"Stop saying sorry Frank. You had nothing to do with it, you couldn't have ever even prevented this from happening, yet you keep apologizing. I'm fucking sorry that I'm making you listen to my whining."

Frank felt like he was punched in the gut. Gerard thought he shouldn't do anything to help, and that meant all he could do was sit there and rub his back, kiss their forehead and not say anything.

After an hour of silence, besides Gerard's whimpering, they decided they were 'fine' for now.

"You're okay?" They nodded. "What do you wanna do now?" 

"'M tired. 'M gunna sleep here." Gerard slurred. "'M gunna sleep here, in your lap."

"Go for it." Frank said. He admired the way his datemate looked in their sleep. Frank ran his fingers through their hair. "I'm so fucking lucky." He muttered.

-

Gerard's phone was ringing. Frank shouldn't pick it up. He should wait for a voicemail. Or at least for Gerard to wake up and answer the phone.

Should he wake them up? Because they looked so peaceful in that moment. It was too late anyway, as the phone went to voicemail.

_"Hey, Gerard. It's Jenna. Tyler wanted to know if you were coming to his top surgery celebration party thing, you aren't here and he's worried. Just call back as soon as possible so he won't have a panic attack thinking that you died, b–."_

Frank decided that it would be best to answer Gerard's phone right then. "Hello?"

"Uh, hi. Who's this?"

"I'm Frank, Gerard's boyfriend. He's asleep right now."

"Can you make sure they get here in a little bit?"

"Yeah, sure thing." Frank said.

"Bye."

Frank tapped Gerard's shoulder. "Hey, Gee, wake up." Gerard groaned. "Je... Jenny, I think–"

"Jenna?"

"Jenna called and said something about Tyler's top surgery celebration that's going on–"

Gerard jumped up. "Fuck! We gotta go. C'mon, Frank. You're going."

"You sure you want me to go?"

"Yes! Get up, let's go. Now."

-

On the way there, Gerard couldn't help but think of something. "Hey, Frank?"

"Hm?"

"Didn't you say that you were staying with different friends at different times, because you don't have your own place?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Was that really your apartment?"

Frank bit his bottom lip. "Um, well, maybe I made that part up..."

"Was that for a sob story?"

"Gerard, look, I'm so sorry. I didn't want to lie to you. The part about me losing my job was true, just not the apartment situation. I promise I won't lie to you ever again– why are you laughing?"

"You made up a sob story. A really lame sob story."

"I know."

Gerard smirked. "You're such an idiot." He leaned over and kissed Frank's cheek.

-

The couple approached Tyler and Jenna's house. "I've only met your friends once, are you sure they'll like me?"

Gerard nodded. "If not, I'll force them to like you." He knocked on the door, which opened. Bob stood at the door. 

"Hey Gerard. Hey, person."

"This is Frank, you've met him, like, once. But anyway, this is my boyfriend Frank."

Bob's mouth formed an 'o' shape. "Sweet. Come in."

Tyler was in by the stairs in the living room playing rock, paper, scissors with Ray. "That's no fair! You switched from scissors to paper when you saw that I did rock!"

"I win, fair and square."

"No you don't!"

Gerard laughed at their argument over the game. "Sorry to break your game up, but I'm here. Sorry I didn't get here earlier, I was asleep."

"You sent me into a panic attack, not knowing where you were."

"Thanks for the concern."

Tyler smiled and hugged Gerard for a moment. "Who's this?"

"This is my boyfriend Frank."

"Shit, you were that guy from the café that Pete was telling me about." He gave Frank a dark look. "Do anything to him and I'll kill you–"

"Tyler, don't worry." Gerard said.

"Okay, fine. I'm gonna find food that I can eat, have fun."

Gerard turned to Frank. "Sorry about that. My friends get really protective, extremely protective over me and any guy I meet since... What happened."

"I'd be overprotective too. Don't worry, it doesn't bother me." 

"Good."

"What the fuck?" A voice shouted. "This is the weirdest gift. Of all gifts you could've given me, you chose this shirt."

"Yep."

"Should we check out what's going on?" Frank asked. 

Gerard nodded. The pair walked into the kitchen and saw Pete looking extremely proud, and Tyler holding up a shirt that said 'Mr. No Boobs.'

"I like it." Jenna commented. "Tyler, what's your opinion."

"Never thought I'd get a shirt like this in my entire life. Thanks, I guess?"

Pete waved to Gerard and Frank. "You're welcome, Tyler."

 Tyler looked at Gerard and Frank. "They made me a pecs cake. A pecs cake."

Gerard rolled his eyes. "That's cute."

"It's masculine." Tyler said in the deepest voice he could. "What did Steve want the other day?"

"Work business." They responded. 

Tyler gestured to Gerard. "This, people, is why you have the same job as your brother; to follow him around and let us know what he does."

"I feel accomplished. My work means something."

"If selling instruments to people is life changing, then sure thing."

Gerard nodded. "It sure is life changing, alright."

"So, what are you doing after the party?" Ray asked the tiny group.

"You know I don't like calling this a party. It's more like a celebration." Tyler stated.

"Then what are you doing after the 'celebration?'"

Gerard shrugged. "Probably gonna go back to Frank's apartment, I dunno."

"Ooh." Pete winked. "Yesterday night–"

"Yesterday night?"

"Yesterday night, Lindsey and I found those two on the couch watching Rocky Horror together."

Ray raised an eyebrow. "So?"

"Cuddling."

"Woah! It's not like couples do that all the time!" Jenna said.

Pete held his pointer finger up. "But, Gerard kissed Frank's cheek."

"Are you high right now, Pete?"

"No! They're actually dating!"

Ray nodded, his afro bobbing up and down. "We know that."

"Have you guys kissed already?"

Frank sighed. "We're not twelve year olds, you don't have to ask us about this."

"Wow, well I thought it was cute and something to share. Are you spending the night at his place again?"

Ray gasped. "Oh shit, really? This is a huge step for you, Gerard."

"I know it is."

Bob tilted his head to the right. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Yeah, okay."

Gerard walked into the other room with Bob. "How long have you guys been together?"

"A little while ago he asked me, because we went on a date a few days before."

"You've known him for how long?"

Gerard looked down. "A month."

"A month? That's rushing, Gerard."

"I know..."

"Is he trustworthy?"

"I think so..."

"How do you know he won't pressure you into anything? How do you know he's not another Bert?"

Gerard looked at Bob, tears forming in their eyes. "Because I know."

"How?"

"He's too good of a person. I can tell that he is, and I haven't even been dating him that long. So stop worrying about me, I can take care of myself Bob." 

Gerard blinked away his tears. "I'm gonna go."

"Gerard," they stopped. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay."


	5. Chapter 5

"I'm sorry I made you leave the party." Gerard apologized as soon as they got back to Frank's apartment from Tyler's house.

Frank wrapped his arm around Gerard's shoulders. "Don't worry, you don't need to apologize." They dropped their head on Frank's shoulders and sat on his lap. 

"But I should. You were having a good time talking to everyone when I came back into the kitchen after talking to Bob, they actually liked you."

Frank kissed his jawline. "Gee, honey, it's okay. I don't care." Gerard froze.

"Frank?"

"Yeah?"

"'Honey?'"

Frank smirked. "Honey." Gerard looked down.

"You just called me 'honey,'" he covered their face in embarrassment.

"I know what I said, Gee. You're so shy."

Gerard nodded. "Fuck, I know that."

"It's okay to be shy, Gerard." He said. "God, you're so adorable."

Gerard kissed his cheek. "Thanks, my dude." Frank cringed.

"I thought we were past the meme stage."

"No, get meme zoned you bitch."

Frank held a hand over his heart in mock offense. "You are rude!"

"I know." 

They realized how close Frank's face was to them. Their eyes flickered to his lips and they pressed his lips to Frank's.

Frank pushed them down so that he was lying on their back. "Are you okay with this?" He asked. Gerard nodded. 

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." They said. "Go ahead."

Frank kissed his neck. "Okay." He stood up. "We should go somewhere else for this." Gerard nodded.

"Yeah." 

-

Frank felt even worse. He did it again. He made Gerard uncomfortable. They sat on the edge of the bed in just their underwear, his chin resting on his knees.

He squeezed a pillow in his arms. It was too early for them, this was rushing, and Gerard didn't want it. But Gerard was right next to him now, saying 'sorry' as much as possible.

"Frank, please say something. I know you're mad at me for crying and stopping it when I initiated it myself, but–"

Frank narrowed his eyes. "Mad? Gee, I'm not mad. I feel bad for making you do this. I keep pressuring you into this shit, I never think with my head about how you feel, I'm always thinking with my dick."

"I was thinking with my dick too until I finally grasped what was happening. I always think I'm ready to do this again and then at some point I'm not at all. I'm sorry." 

Frank wrapped his arms around Gerard. "We both need to say sorry, then."

"We finally agree on something." 

"I have something we can probably both agree on."

"Hm?" 

"I know you're uncomfortable with sex, but how about just cuddling for now?"

Gerard grinned. "That's a great idea. Can we watch TV?" Frank nodded and picked up the remote on his nightstand.

"The news is on, how romantic." He said.

_"Multiple crimes against the LGBT community have been committed over the years, but today in this very city in New Jersey, there have been raids on their homes, with an unidentified person committing the acts, along with a group we have yet to learn the name of. Stay safe. The threats aren't too serious yet, but how long will it be before they are?"_

Gerard's eyes widened and he clinged to Frank. "No... Please don't let them hurt us."

"I won't let them get you, Gee."

-

There was knocking on the door. Gerard jumped and put on, probably Frank's hoodie, and pants.

"Frank, somebody's at the door." 

"Can you answer it?"

Gerard opened the door. "Uh... Hi?"

"Is Frank here?"

"Yeah, he's in the bathroom, though. Who are you?" Gerard asked. They didn't know what this person wanted. After all; he could be one of those evil men involved with the raids.

"I'm Ryan, Frank's friend– who are you?"

"Gerard, Frank's–"

"Boyfriend?" Gerard nodded. "He's told me about you. I'm so happy for you two, God dude, you are so cute together! We should go on double dates, Brendon, you, Frank, and I!"

Frank walked out of the bathroom. "Hey Ry, what are you doing here?"

Ryan eyed Frank's appearance and turned bright red. "Why aren't you wearing pants... Or a shirt?"

"Oh– I'm just gonna– one second."

"Were you guys doing something? Should I go?"

"Oh God no, we weren't." Gerard sighed. "What are you doing here?"

"The news reports, have you guys seen them yet?" Ryan asked.

Gerard nodded. "Yeah."

He let out a shaky breath. "You guys are fine though, right?"

"Yeah, you okay?"

Ryan nodded. "Yeah. My boyfriend isn't with me and he usually is when I have panic attacks, he's there to calm me down but not today. He's been gone for an hour with his friend Josh."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that alone, panic attacks are hard, especially when you have no one there to be there with you."

Ryan smiled. "Thanks."

"For what?"

"The empathy. Nobody really has it anymore."

"My friend Tyler likes to say it's on the brink of extinction. Sad that nobody cares anymore."

"Exactly."

Frank walked back into the room, this time with a black shirt and jeans. "So, Ryan, what did you need?"

"The raids."

"What about them?"

Ryan had a sad look on his face. "Rumor has it that they're coming to this apartment. You need to leave soon, find someone to stay with. Just be safe."

Gerard's eyes widened. "Frank, they can't come here! This is where you live."

"This might sound super selfish and like I'm inviting myself over, but do you wanna go back to your apartment?"

"Yeah. Do you know when they said they're coming here?"

"Tomorrow at around noon. They're looking for gay couples around the building."

"Can't I just wear drag and we can pass off as a straight couple?"

"If you want to prove that you have a vagina by taking your clothes off and showing them, sure thing."

Frank held Gerard's hand. "Don't say things like that, Ry."

"No, it's fine. I don't care." Gerard muttered. 

Ryan waved. "Yeah, I'll uh, I have to go. See if Brendon is back from the mall yet."

Gerard held their hand up. "'Kay, bye."

"So threats that people are gonna look for gay couples... What do you think they'll do?"

"I hope they don't do anything too bad." 

Gerard rested his head on Frank. "I'm scared."

"I am too."

-

They packed a week's worth of Frank's clothes, along with a toothbrush and an extra blanket.

"They might not come here." Frank stated.

Gerard glared at him. "You wanna be safe."

"Fine."

-

Frank wanted to stay in his apartment for one more night and wake up early, then go to Gerard and Pete's place.

"I guess we can do that." Gerard said. 

The two changed into different pairs of Frank's pajama pants. "I'm sorry I'm putting you in this situation." Frank said, Gerard's face parallel to his. 

"I don't care." They said, kissing Frank for a moment. "As long as you're safe, I'll be happy." He wrapped his arms around Frank. 

-

Seven O'clock AM

"Wake up, Gerard." Frank murmured. He kissed their cheek. "We gotta go."

Gerard slowly opened his eyes. "Is it time to go already?"

"Yeah, we gotta go honey."

Gerard sat up. "Ugh." They got out of the bed and picked up a random pair of jeans off the floor. "Can I wear your jeans?" 

"Yeah." 

They changed out of Frank's pajamas and into Frank's jeans, then put on the shirt they wore yesterday.

"We good?" Frank asked.

Gerard smiled sadly at him. "All good." He said, his voice cracking.

-

"Can we go to McDonald's on our way to my apartment?" 

"Uh, sure." Frank drove to the drive through. "I'll get... Anything that doesn't involve meat. So I'll get salad."

"Sorry Frankie. I'll get a Happy Meal."

" _Happy Meal?_ " Gerard nodded. 

"Fine, then I'll get a Big Mac or whatever type of bullshit there is."

"Do you wanna go to Starbucks instead?"

"Yes."

Frank was taken aback. He hadn't expected Gerard to like Starbucks. "Okay." 

"Can I get a pumpkin spice latte?"

"What the fuck? Uh, okay." 

-

After they got the coffee and muffins, the two went to Gerard's apartment. They unlocked their door and walked in.

"Pete? You home?"

"Yeah, you're back early."

"Frank's with me."

Pete turned to see Gerard and Frank hugging. Frank was hugging Gerard for reassurance, and Gerard was hugging Frank for support.

"I'll be in my room. I haven't gotten sleep. Frank, make yourself at home. Gerard, you are home."

"We left the building, we'll be fine."

Gerard was shaking. "I just want you to–"

"Be safe, I know. I'll be safe. You will too. Things will be okay soon."

Gerard sighed. "I hope so."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> srry for the cringe mentions of the secks

Frank and Gerard kept their eyes on the news the whole day. It was around  _12:10 PM_ when there was a news report about another raid on the LGBT community. 

They felt queasy. "Was– was it true?" Gerard felt tears rolling down their cheeks already. Frank held Gerard's hand to his chest.

"We'll see." 

_"News reports of apartment complex called 'Fairsquare Apartments' raided by a group identified as The Hunters, searching for LGBT peoples and couples, and doing unspeakable things to them._

_"In quote of a witness, the group 'beat them and threatened to kill them if they didn't turn straight.'"_

Gerard's breath hitched. "Oh God, Frank, it's worse than I imagined. What if Ryan didn't warn us and we stayed there? You would've gotten hurt." 

"You would've been injured too."

"I'm nowhere near as important as you. What would happen if you got killed by them?"

Frank flinched at Gerard's words. "If you died, if you were taken away from me, what would I have left?"

"You'd have–"

"My family doesn't want any form of contact with me, I don't have a job and I can't get one, and I barely talk to my friends, since they all have their own life."

"The only time I talk to them is when it's bad news. So no; I wouldn't have anything left if you were gone. That means if I didn't have you, I probably wouldn't be here. You're the only thing I actually have left to live for. If they take that from me–"

Frank's voice cracked. "Don't let them." Gerard felt tears pooling in his eyes.

"I won't ever let them." They said. "They won't take me away from you, as long as they don't take you from me."

"They won't." 

-

It was almost five months later, and there had been no attack on LGBT people since. 

Frank was cradled in a blanket on his couch, sleeping. He had fallen asleep while watching  _Friends_ reruns. His phone rang. "Hello?" 

"Frank." Gerard.

Frank smiled. "Hey, Gee. What's up?" No reponse. "Gerard?" He heard muttering. Maybe it was Mikey speaking to him, he went to Gerard's place randomly a lot.

"Frank, are you okay?"

"Uh, yeah. Why?"

"Go onto the first floor. Ryan said that there was a threat again. Leave out the back door. Be safe, I lo– yes Ryan, I'm warning him." It was Ryan that he was talking to.

Frank slowly stood up. "Wait, what?"

"Leave, now. Come to my place and please, please just stay safe. I have clothes, chargers, anything you can use if you wanna stay over."

He stood up and picked up his keys. "I'm leaving, Gee. See you soon."

"Lo–" He hung up on Gerard and put his shoes on, opening the door and leaving the apartment.

He turned to see two men walking in the hallway with masks on, and handguns, their backs facing him. Frank froze, then began tiptoeing to the stairs exit. He opened the door and ran out, going down the flights. 

He panicked when he heard the door open. "Fuck." He turned to see one of the men also going down behind him. He started running down.

He got to the first floor, the man only inches behind him. Frank began running again, and sat behind bushes next to the apartment building. He crawled away and to his car when the man was out of sight.

Frank drove away, unable to focus. He pulled over in the middle of the street to check his phone. 

The phone rang on Gerard's line. "Frank! My fucking God man." Ryan answered. "Gerard is anxious as fuck now. You hung up on him. What the fuck dude?"

"I'm s– sorry. I'm on my way."

"Did anything happen while you were leaving?"

Frank nodded, though Ryan couldn't see him. "Yeah, one of the guys were chasing me."

"Did he hurt you?"

"Almost, I don't know what the fuck just happened. All I know is that I was being chased, and he was very close to me."

"Get here soon."

"On my way."

-

Frank finally got to Gerard's apartment. He knocked on the door. "Come in." Ryan responded.

"Hey, w–where are they?" He asked. 

Gerard sat up from the couch, their eyes swollen from crying. "Frank." Frank ran over to Gerard and hugged him. "Fuck, I was so scared. Are you okay?"

Frank nodded. "I'm fine. You don't look fine."

"I was terrified. What if I lost you?" Gerard asked.

Frank buried his face in Gerard's neck. "I would never let you lose me. I'm sorry wasn't here in time. God, I'm so sorry."

Gerard scooted over from where they were lying in the couch. "Lay with me." 

"Of course." Frank agreed, laying down next to him. "I'm so sorry."

Ryan opened the door. "I'll let myself out." 

"Bye Ryan."

Frank smiled. "I'm sorry I made you worry–"

"You say that too much. It's okay."

"Okay." Frank said, kissing Gerard for minute. "I love you." He muttered, then his eyes widened. "Fuck, I-I love you."

"I-I love you too, Frank." Gerard grinned. "I love you." He said.

Frank cupped Gerard's cheek. Gerard leaned in and kissed him.

-

Frank had to stop and make sure Gerard was okay every other minute, that's how worried they were. But Gerard on the other hand, didn't care.

Gerard was alright. Actually, he was perfect. They wanted Frank to know that. But if they kept stopping Frank from doing what they were doing, then Frank wouldn't be able to do anything without walking on eggshells.

That's what he felt like Frank was doing while they were having sex. Gerard let him know that they were fine. After telling him ten times, Frank trusted what he had said.

But of course, Frank had always asked for consent before doing anything. Which Gerard liked. It made them trust him more. 

After Frank was done with the whole consenting deal, he felt perfect. He bit down on their collarbone. They moaned and clawed at Frank's back, did whatever he could.

After they finished, Frank was back to his regular, consenting self. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did I do anything wrong?" He asked. 

They shook his head. "No, I'm fine. I feel great. Don't worry." Frank smiled. 

"Thank God. You're okay. You're not upset. We just did this–"

"We just did this without me being a pussy, I know." Gerard said. "You can stop saying that now."

"Okay, okay." Frank pulled Gerard closer to him. "I love you."

"I love you."

-

Pete was bouncing off the walls. He'd been seeing Patrick around town a lot lately, and he finally picked up the courage to ask him to hang out around the city, and stay with him later at his apartment.

Now the two of them were there. "Gerard? Frank?" He called. "Guys?" 

"Yo, Frank's here?"

"Yeah."

"I need to talk to him."

"About what?"

"That's classified. Short people only."

"I know where they are. Probably sleeping." Pete said, going to Gerard's room.

He knocked on the door. "Gerard?" Gerard groaned.

"What?"

"Is Frank here?"

Silence.

The door opened with Gerard in a blanket, with lazily put on sweatpants and a shirt, and a smirk. "Hey."

Pete raised his eyebrow. "Wow, looks like I came at the wrong  _fucking_ time."

"Did you just make a pun?"

Pete looked shocked for a second. "Fuck, I didn't realize I was interrupting anything, sorry not sorry. Anyway, Patrick is here and we're invading the pantry and your privacy."

"Wow, thanks."

"Patrick? Where is he?" Frank asked, standing at the door. 

"In the living room."

Frank pushed passed Pete and found Patrick on the couch. "Hey Patrick!"

"Hey Frank, why are you here?"

"I'm with Gerard."

Patrick smiled. "Have fun, then." Pete lifted his leg over the couch and sat close to Patrick. 

"Hey, can you turn on the news?" Gerard asked. Pete clicked the on button for the TV and pressed the number four for the news channel.

A reporter was by Frank's building, with a grin on her face. "Thank you, Laura. I'm Jill Inscrute, standing just outside the apartment complex attacked only six hours ago. So far we have no reports of any radical homosexual activity in Fairsquare, thankfully."

"None at all?" The hostess asked.

She nodded, her blonde hair swaying with the movement. "No." 

"This is great news–"

Frank turned the television off. "Such a biased fucking news. Nothing is wrong about my 'radical homosexual activity.' Anybody who says that can suck my dick."

"Everything is wrong with your radical homosexual activity." Gerard said quietly.

Pete scoffed. "You just wanna suck a dick."

"Yes."

"God, Gee. Not now."

"Horny fuck."

"This is kink shaming." Gerard deadpanned. 

Frank chuckled. "Then I'll shame all I've want."

"Please use correct grammar, Frank." Patrick narrowed his eyes.

"That was the worst grammar I've heard." Pete said. 

Patrick groaned. "Fuck you all." He looked at his phone. "Gotta go, Elisa and I are going on a date soon. Bye."

Frank's eyes met Pete's as soon as he left. "Date?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he has a girlfriend."

"Since when?"

"Three months ago... Pete, you okay?"

Pete had a disappointed look on his face. "Yeah, that's okay. I'll be in my room if you need me." 

"Great, now I feel bad. Did Patrick really not say anything about Elisa?"

Pete sighed. "He had mentioned something about Elisa, like she and him were really close even after a few months, though they've been best friends for a long time."

"You are really oblivious."

"I know. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go sulk and die of sadness. Goodbye forever, I'm off to the great depression, starting with my room."

"Have fun." 


	7. Chapter 7

Gerard and Frank walked into Pete's room, who was staring blankly at the wall, sitting on his bed. Gerard set the bowl of macaroni and cheese that he was holding down onto the table by Pete's bed with a spoon and napkin.

"I would've given you ice cream, but you know..."

Pete stared at Gerard. "I hate ice cream." They chuckled. "You know that, asshole."

"That's why I didn't give you ice cream." Pete shrugged. "Listen Pete, it's not like he was going to date you immediately. He's demisexual  _and_ demiromantic, it takes a long time for him to be attracted to someone. But he's found somebody, grown an attraction for the first time since he was a kid, and asked her out."

"It's not like he's going to fucking want to date you right off the bat. So chill with this." Gerard crossed their arms. 

Pete turned away from Gerard. "Fuck you Gerard."

"It's not like he's going to leave Elisa for you." 

"Go away." Pete muttered in an emotionless tone. "But give me the mac and cheese first." Gerard handed the bowl to him. "Thanks, now you can fuck off."

"Keep what I said in mind."

-

"Gee, I'm going to the café. Come with?"

Gerard nodded. "Yeah, one second." He said. "Need to put shoes on." They pulled their converse on and tied the laces on each shoe. "Let's go."

The two sat in Frank's car. "Hey, why don't you drive?"

"I prefer the passenger seat, not drivers."

"... And this, Gerard Way, is why you are a bottom."

Gerard blushed. "Shut up.

-

"Hey Kitty." Frank smiled and took his written name tag from her hand, Gerard following suit.

Gerard grabbed Frank's hand and led him to the couch. "We should go here more often."

"I know right, like we only go here seven times a day."

"Shut up, you know what I mean."

Frank chuckled. "I'm afraid I do." He said. "You want anything? I'm getting coffee."

"Coffee. Thank you Frankie." A few moments after, a stranger sat in Frank's spot.

"Well hello there." Stranger said.

Gerard turned to him. "Um, hi?" 

Stranger placed his hand on Gerard's thigh. "Do you wanna like, come to my place, pretty boy?" Stranger asked, his hand trailing up near Gerard's crotch.

Gerard's breath hitched. "N-no tha-thanks."

"Why not?" Stranger asked, his face close to Gerard's.

Their eyes watered. "N-no, no, I have a b-boyfriend."

"We don't need to tell him. You and I are completely sober, we know what we're doing."

"Leave m-me al-alone."

"Ah, poor baby is scared. I'm not going to hurt you, pretty boy."

"N-not a boy."

"That doesn't matter to me, honey."

"Go a-away."

"Frank, you're coffee is ready." Kitty said.

He smiled in return. "Thank you." Frank handed ten dollars to Kitty.

"Frank."

"Yeah?"

"Your datemate–"

Frank looked over his shoulder to see Gerard cowering under a stranger. He snarled and stalked towards the couch, and cleared his throat.

Stranger looked up. "What the fuck–"

He pushed the stranger off the couch, ignoring the strange looks from the people in the café.

Frank immediately sat down next to Gerard after putting the cups down. "Fuck, are you okay?" They looked up, shaking.

"I–I wanna go home."

"Okay, let's go back to your apartment." Frank helped pull Gerard up and led him outside to his car.

"You want your coffee?" He held it out to Gerard.

They shook their head. "No." They pushed the cup back.

"What happened in there? What the fuck was he doing?"

"I was waiting for you and the guy..." He blubbered.

Frank wrapped his left arm around Gerard's shoulders. "Sh, you can wait a little to calm down, Gerard."

"Are you mad?"

Frank shook his head. "No."  _Just jealous. Angry, no, jealous, yes._ "Not at all, Gee." Lies. Frank felt bad for lying, but he didn't want to scare Gerard.

He opened the door for Gerard and the ride home would've been dead silent if it weren't for Gerard's sniffling.

"I'm sorry." Frank gave Gerard a confused look. "I always do this. I make every cute moment and turn it to shit because I can't help but be the poor fucking rape victim."

"Gerard..."

"No, you fucking feel bad for me, don't you? But never mind about that, because I always bring this topic up, don't I?"

"Gee..."

"Just, shut up for once, please." After that was silence again.

-

"I'm sorry." Gerard said as soon as they got back inside his apartment. "The guy just, he started... Touching... Me... I couldn't do anything about it because I was too scared. Too scared to make a scene in the middle of the café. He took advantage of that and started to do... Stuff. Y'know, the stuff that hurt me before, with Bert."

Frank's eye twitched. He wasn't jealous anymore, he was angry. He needed to let his anger out.

"He did what?! He fucking did that shit? What the fuck? Did you say no?!"

"I told him that I have a b-boyfriend and he-he said that we don't n-need to tell you. He said that we were both sober so we knew what we were doing... He kept calling me pretty boy and it hurt me, I told him that I'm not a boy and ignored it. I k-kept saying n-no..."

Frank couldn't hold it back. At first it came out as a scream, then a growl. "F–Frank," they began. 

He clenched his fists. "You–you're scaring m–me." He ignored Gerard. "P–please Fra–Frank." They touched his arm. "J–just try to cal–calm down."

Frank tensed. "But he fucking scared you."

"You're scaring me too." Frank pulled his arm away from Gerard. "Frank, please just... Stop–stop. Just... Get out."

Frank looked up. "What?"

"Go away." 

He had a hurt look on his face. Frank opened the door and walked out. Gerard closed the door and went to Pete's room. Pete was at his door, with a sad look on his face.

No words were spoken. Gerard wrapped his arms around Pete and let out a sob, and started crying. 

–

"You told him to go away–"

"–I didn't want him to. I was caught up in the moment–"

"–So the moment made you make him leave–"

"–We've been spending a lot of time together anyway, he should have some alone time–"

"–And this is how you want him to spend alone time? Sad? Feeling guilty?"

"Are you telling me what happened is my fault?"

"Partially. Not what happened at the café, but the way you handled the situation and what came out of it is partially your fault. Same for him."

"Oh."

"You made him leave without any explanation, confused him. But he made you feel terrified."

"I just act in strange ways when I'm sad. I overreact."

"Just go rest and take time to cool off."

"Okay."

–

_Pete Wentz to Frank Iero._

Pete Wentz: gee feels bad for what they did frank

Frank Iero: i feel bad too

Pete Wentz: i told him to rest and take some time to cool off, you should too

Frank Iero: yeah, i guess i'll do that too

Frank Iero: tell him i love him and to stay safe

Pete Wentz: sure thing, night

Frank Iero: night

–

"What did he say?" Gerard asked.

"He told me to tell you that he loves you and wants you to stay safe."

"Still? After being the shitty person I am? No way."

"Go to sleep."

"You answer none of my questions."

–

Gerard's cell phone ringing is what woke him up at eleven o'clock. "Hello?"

"Hey, Gerard. Uh, my friends came up with an idea to drive to New York City, just now. Yeah, I'm going with them. You wanna come?"

"Frank? Oh, um, I mean..."

"If you don't want to, I mean you don't have to. I understand if you wanna be left alone. I'm just going in a little bit."

"This is so sudden, why now?"

"Just an idea. I thought it would give us a chance to leave our homophobic town for a little bit and go to one of the most diverse cities in the USA, we can be ourselves just for a week."

"Fuck yes, Frank. I'll go with you."

"Awesome. Have your shit packed, we're leaving in twenty."

"I'll be there in ten. Love you."

"Love you too."

"Pete! I'm going to New York."

Pete looked at Gerard, dumbfounded. "What? With who?"

"Frank. We're going with his friends for no reason."

"This is all so sudden. Why?"

"To leave this homophobic town for a week."

"... Get packing then!" Gerard nodded and hastily ran to his room, and stuffed clothes from their dresser into a suitcase and his toothbrush in the front pocket of his suitcase.

"See ya in a week." They said, giving Pete a quick hug.

Pete patted Gerard's back. "Bye, Gerard."

"Bye."

-

Frank opened his door. "Gerard–" He was interrupted by Gerard almost tackling him. 

"I'm so sorry, I love you." 

"Gerard, it's fine. I love you too. Oh yeah, Brendon, Ryan, and Josh, Gerard's coming to New York City with us."

"Cool! It'll take us about two hours to get to NYC. Pretty short trip." Ryan shrugged. "Oh, hey Gerard. Haven't seen you in awhile."

"No shit. How've you been?"

"Bren and I decided to get back together for the millionth time, so I assume that makes me well. You?"

"So-so. When do we leave?"

"We were heading out just now. We're taking my van."

"Damn, Brendon. You have a van?"

"After having kids, you need a van."

"You got kids?" Gerard asked.

Brendon nodded. "Yeah, my ex Dallon and I had them via surrogate, via my close friend Sarah."

"He has a lot of via's." Josh added, quietly.

"Yeah, we're like the divorced parents. I have them on the weekends, Dallon has them weekdays. But Dallon is watching them for the whole week."

"You could say your kids have them... For Dallon Weekes."

Brendon shook his head and pointed to the door. "You're not going, Josh. Leave."

"Well I was going to leave for the week to be in NYC, so see ya!" Everyone chuckled. "So, let's get going."

Frank grabbed his keys and locked the door once everyone was out. "We good? Beebo, you got the van, I have the luggage, Gerard has the ass, Josh has more luggage, we're all set!"

"Honestly, Gerard does have a nice ass," Brendon started, "but I have a better ass."

"You should see Gerard's friend Tyler, his ass is huge." Said Frank.

Gerard sighed. "Doesn't he?" 

"Do you have a picture of his ass? Or at least a picture of him from the back?"

"Maybe. I can show you when we get in the van." Gerard suggested.

Josh smiled. "Thanks." They went to the garage under the apartment to get into Brendon's van.

"Next stop, NYC."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry i didn't update i'm a lazy fuck  
> i'm so done w the usa


	8. Chapter 8

Vans are old, dusty, and crusty. But Brendon's van was way worse. "What the actual fuck do you keep in here, Brendon?" Frank asked after he and Gerard climbed into the back of the van. 

"Well I'm _sorry_ if I don't keep my shit sanitary." 

Ryan bit his lip and shook his head, looking at Gerard sympathetically. "I'm sorry about him. He really doesn't keep anything sanitary."

Josh buckled his seatbelt. "He doesn't, it's sad."

Brendon rolled his eyes. "I clean it on Friday every morning at ten."

"But that's only because your children come over after they leave school, _and_ you want Dallon to think you have a stable life so he won't get full custody."

"Ouch Ryan, didn't know you could be so sassy." Josh said.

Ryan shrugged. "I dunno, I like Dallon."

"Why does everyone get along so well with Dallon?"

"Because they don't try to pick fights over every little thing." Ryan said.

Brendon raised his eyebrow. "Excuse me? I'm not the one that freaked out when I got a cat instead of a dog."

"If I remember correctly, it was _you_ that specifically stated that you didn't care which one I wanted, even when I said I wanted a dog, not a cat."

Frank placed his hand over Gerard's. "I have earbuds. Instead of listening to their fight, listen to music with me."

"Do they do this a lot?"

"Oh God, yes they do." Gerard took an earbud from Frank. 

"Thank you." He said, and rested their head on Frank's shoulder. 

-

"Wake up." Brendon shouted. "What do you want from _McDonald's_?"

Frank looked at the menu. "I literally can't eat anything on this menu. I'm vegetarian."

"McFlurry, ok. Gerard, what do you want?"

"Cheeseburger, I guess."

Ryan snorted. "Cheese _bruh_ ger." Brendon shrieked.

"Fuck, Ry, you're hilarious." 

"Did you just squeal?" 

"Yes, but I was laughing. I'll get two McFlurry shits, a chee... Cheese fuck..."

"Cheese whiz."

Josh unbuckled his seat belt and crawled over the front seats, and to the opened window. "Hey, we'll get two McFlurry's, two cheeseburgers, a hot coffee, and a coke." He leaned down to Brendon. "Drive the fuck up." Josh went back to his seat.

The van started to move forward, until Brendon got to the window to get the food. "Yum yum." He handed the person at the window money and took the bag of food and drinks, and the McFlurry's. "Also, here's a note." He handed the person a note that said, " _I'm gay."_ The employee's head snapped up with a disgusted look on her face as the van started to drive off.

"Brendon, what did the note say?" Frank asked.

"I'm gay." 

"Accurate."

Brendon chuckled. "Let's play a game. Frank, how many people have you fucked?"

"Why?"

"Why the fuck not?"

"Uh, sixty–nine."

"Nice, I fucked six hundred and sixty–six."

"Josh?"

"Seventy–three."

"Gerard?"

Frank layed his hand onto Gerard's shoulder. "You know, you don't have to answer this if it makes you uncomfortable." He whispered.

"It's fine; as I have fucked every legal person in this world known to mankind– I am what you would call a whore. As my friend Tyler would say, 'metaphorically I'm a whore,' but not only am I metaphorically, I am emotionally, and sexually. I fuck people in my sleep... I'm just kidding guys, I'm a bottom. I don't fuck people, so I haven't actually fucked anyone. _But they have fucked me."_

Brendon took his hand off the steering wheel and started clapping. Soon after, Josh, Ryan, and Frank started cheering. "I relate Gerard, I relate." Ryan said.

"Best speech ever." 

"You're welcome, you're welcome."

-

Brendon honked the horn on the steering wheel. "Beebo! What the fuck are you doing?"

"I'm playing the honking game where somebody honks a horn at a red light or traffic jam, and then everybody else starts honking."

He honked the horn again and the whole lane started to honk their horns. Brendon started honking a certain melody.

After awhile, Gerard started singing along once he caught onto the song. "... I just want you for my own, more than you could ever know, make my wish come true..."

The whole group of gays started singing together. "All I want for Christmas is you." 

-

"That really buckled my belt." Brendon said.

"I dunno, it really Shrek'd my swamp."

"It really cupids my bow."

"It really Beebo's my forehead."

"I'm so confused."

"It really fuzzies my lumps."

The van went silent. "... Whatcha gonna do with all that junk, all that junk inside that trunk?"

"I'ma get, get, get you drunk, get you love drunk off my hump! My hump, my hump, my hump my hump; my lovely little lumps, check it out."

"Hey Ryan." Brendon said. "Get me CD number two; BEP of MB, track five."

"On it Bren." Ryan responded and entered a CD into the player. He pressed buttons to get to track five of the album.

Josh started to laugh. "You're shitting me Brendon."

"Why do you have a Black Eyed Peas CD? Why do you have a CD anyway?"

"See; Gerard's asking the real questions– why the fuck would you even think about listening to them–"

"–shut up Josh; you're just jealous that you don't even have good little lumps like Fergie and I; we have lumps in the back and in the front, bitch."

"Ouch– with this kind of behavior how will we ever survive living together in New York City for a week?"

"We'll kill each other if we stay longer than eight days."

"Can't wait."

-

"Anybody need a bathroom break?" Ryan asked.

"I do." Brendon said. Frank nodded.

"Okay, we'll just stop at this gas station."

Frank and Josh unbuckled their seatbelts and opened the van door once they got to the stop. "You coming, Gee?" Frank asked.

"No, I'm staying in here with..."

"With Josh."

"Okay." 

After everyone else went into the gas station, Josh looked at Gerard. "So you're Frank's datemate?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Um, not to intrude or anything, but you mentioned something about your friend Tyler?"

"Yeah, he's my friend."

"I had a friend named Tyler– we faded as friends; if it's not too creepy, do you have a picture of him? It's a small town we live in and I was wondering if he was my friend that I knew?"

"Might not be him, though, he's trans and started transitioning in ninth grade."

"That's when we separated as friends, he told me that he was trans and my family found out and said I couldn't see him anymore. Can you show me a picture of him?"

"Yeah– is his name Tyler Joseph?"

"Yes! That's him!" Josh nodded enthusiastically at the picture and at his name. "How is he now?"

"He's great! He just got top surgery and is on testosterone, and he has a wife, Jenna."

"Oh, nice! I used to have a  _huge_ crush on him in eighth and ninth grade."

"I can actually recall him saying he had a friend Josh that had the most  _obvious_ crush on him."

"I'm Josh– wait, that was obvious? Fucking shitbag!"

"Awe, you poor thing."

"I am."

"Next time you see him, tell him Josh says, 'hi.'"

-

"How much longer until New York City?"

"Well, we're about fifteen minutes away."

"That quick?"

"An hour and fifteen minutes away."

"What?!"

"What fucking answer doing you want?!"

"Isn't there a fucking shortcut you emo fucker?!"

"Shut the hell up, Brendon! I'm giving you the honest answer, but you never fucking listen!"

"Fucking prick! I should've never gotten back together with you."

Ryan took a moment to process what Brendon just said. "What?"

"... Ryan."

Gerard tilted his head up at Frank. "Should I be worried?"

"I don't know, they always do this."

"You said that."

"Okay."

"I'm so sorry, Ryan."

"Fuck you you Jacksfilms forehead ass bitch!"

"What a fucker!"

"Fucking manwhore-manchild! I can see why Dallon has more custody of your children than you do!"

"Okay, listen up you little shit; stop fucking bringing up Dallon in every fucking fight we have– do you like him or some shit? Do you want to  _fuck_ him?"

"I like him better than you, fuck you!"

After that, the van was yet again silent for an hour until the next stop. Brendon cupped Ryan's face with either hand. "Fuck– I love you."

"I'm so fucking sorry that I'm a terrible person to you– I love you Brendon." Ryan said and slammed his face into Brendon's.

"Oh my."

"You're gonna have to deal with this during the whole week."

-

"Twenty more minutes until we hit NYC."

"Can't wait."

"Hey, wake us up when we're there." Frank said.

"Okay."

-

"Ten minutes." Ryan reminded.

-

Brendon drove into NYC, once he saw Lady Liberty standing in the middle of the ocean.

"We're in New York City!" Brendon exclaimed.


	9. Chapter 9

_"We're in New York City!" Brendon exclaimed._

Gerard grinned and clutched Frank's hand. "Frank, we're here." He repeated, over and over; like they couldn't believe it. They looked at Frank, eyes wide and gleaming. "We're here! We're here, we're here, we are  _here_!"

"Gerard is one excited puppy, aren't they?" Brendon chuckled and opened the van door when they parked into a garage of the hotels, and pressed a button to open the back doors. 

Josh unbuckled his seatbelt and got out first, then Frank and Gerard followed. Ryan was glued to Brendon's side. "I'll buy us three rooms, one for Josh; Ryan and I; and Gerard and Frank."

"This might be like last year when we went to Washington and you heard me screaming 'daddy' for two hours followed by moaning."

Frank cringed at the memory. "Please don't bring that up. I still have nightmares to this day."

"Can you guys at least be a little quiet to give Gerard and I a chance to be loud?" Frank said suggestively.

"Aye papi." Brendon said. "We'll try." He said and left to the receptionist with Ryan.

Josh chuckled. "We have this thing where we try to go hotel to hotel for a week once a year and try to make the loudest noises possible. Whether it's moaning, random swearing, Brendon and Ryan screaming at each other; we try to go a week or more and see how long it takes us to get a noise complaint."

Gerard nodded. "Sounds interesting. How long did it take last year?"

"Two weeks– only because there were barely any people living there and most of them were near deaf."

"Was that a pun because there were old people?"

"Yes. They didn't have good hearing and we almost went three weeks until Jack and Jamie came with their stereotypical white family, great hearing and quiet children. Fuck the J's."

"Yeah man, fuck the J's." Ryan said when they came back.

"Fuck the J's." Gerard and Frank said.

Brendon narrowed his eyebrows in thought for a moment. "Haven't I fucked a Jay before? Pretty sure I've fucked a Jay before. Oh yeah– I fucked that Jack guy one day that week. His wife got pissed when she found out and filed a noise complaint afterwards just to kick us out."

"Honestly Brendon, who have you not fucked before?" Brendon shrugged.

"Okay, here's a key to Gerard and Frank's room, you guys are 319. Ryan and I are room 320, and Josh is room 321. The rooms are connected so we could totally walk in on one of you guys sucking a dick or masturbating. Just a warning."

Gerard shifted uncomfortably. "Thanks for the, ah, warning?"

"No problemo. Let's go. We're on the sixteenth floor."

"We get the better floor with better rooms, I bet."

-

"We got the worst fucking rooms in this shitty hell hole." Frank muttered. The king sized bed had taken up most of the room and the TV was full screen on the wall, a dresser up against the bed. A little light was on the ceiling.

"I mean, we could've gotten worse. Be grateful, Frankie." Gerard murmured, wrapping his arms around Frank's shoulders and kissing the top of his head. 

"I guess." He replied and hugged them back. "I love you."

"Love you too." 

Josh opened the door from Brendon's room. "They're not sucking dick." He called to Brendon and Ryan. "You guys got a better room than I did. I had to climb over a huge ass matress and I could barely slide through the door to Beebo after checking for bed bugs. Surprisingly, my bed is clear. Brendon and Ryan have a tiny bed, a tiny TV, and a tiny dresser. The rest is a shitload of space."

"The fuck is this shit?" Brendon yelled from the other room. 

Gerard giggled from the side of the bed. "What are you doing, Gee?"

"Checking for bed bugs."

"We clear?"

"All clear." He said and returned to Frank's side.

Brendon groaned. "Let's make sure we are noisy as shit in this place. Noisiest we've ever been."

"All agree?"

There was a chorus of 'yes.' "Okay, good. On the count of three, let's all moan something sexual. Loudly. One... Two... Three..."

"Oh!"

"Mmm!"

"Daddy!"

"Baby boy, oh!"

"Fuck me harder, Daddy!"

"Anything for you little boy!"

Gerard stifled a laughed and gently tugged Brendon off of Ryan, as he was casually grinding on him. "Okay, I think that's enough thrusting for my pleasure." 

"You're not me, though." Brendon retorted.

"Just be quiet for a minute."

-

Gerard was in bed with Frank, his arm loosely wrapped around Frank's waist. Their head resting on his shoulder and they were sound asleep. Suddenly, a loud moan came from the next room. Frank quirked an eyebrow. "Is that Brydan?"

"You mean Brendon? Ryan? Ryden?"

"Sure, whatever. I'll tell them to calm... Nevermind. The noise complaints."

"Yeah, go back to sleep."

Another moan, this time 'daddy' accompanied it. Gerard opened their eyes, frustrated. He turned to his side and threw the covers off and stood up, opening the door to the other room.

They were met with the sight of Ryan's hips bucked up, and Brendon sucking his dick while jacking off. Gerard stared for a moment and turned around, slamming the door and walking out of their hotel room.

He walked to the water jug on the table by the ice machine. He poured a cup of water and splashed it over his face. Frank was behind him. "Hey, Gee? May I ask what you're doing?"

"Trying to rid myself of that vision." They said, thinking to themselves for a second. "Oh fuck– I think I saw a dildo shoved up Ryan's ass." They cringed.

"Sorry you had to go through that, Gee." Frank said and kissed his head. He wrapped his arms around from behind Gerard and kissed their neck. "Do you wanna go back to sleep?"

"Sure. Let's go, Frank." They said and started tip toeing towards the hotel room. "Wait– noise complaints." Frank chuckled.

"Let's go." He said, and they started screaming while stomping, running towards their room, followed by loud moans from Brendon and Ryan's room, and loud sobbing coming from Josh's room.

Once Frank and Gerard got back into their room, they fell down laughing loudly. "I love you." Gerard said and connected his lips with Frank's. Frank smiled and tugged on the hem of Gerard's shirt. Gerard chuckled and pulled it off. 

-

Josh woke up and opened the door just a crack, looking through it and seeing Brendon asleep, but Ryan was watching TV. Ryan turned to Josh and waved. "Hey." He whispered.

"Hi. Brendon's not up yet?" Ryan shook his head.

"No."

"You guys went hardcore as shit last night. Do you actually have a daddy kink?"

"Uh, kinda, yeah... I do." His cheeks burned red. "Don't judge, though."

"It's... Different. But I mean, you do you Ry." Ryan nodded. "Is Frank up? Gerard?" Ryan shook his head. "What are you watching?"

"Friends. That's the only show we can get on here. I will be tired of it some day this week."

"Nice? Um, I had some ideas to go places today. Act like cringeworthy tourists."

"Like where?"

"We could go to a shopping centre, see some sites, get something to eat, see a movie maybe. Something like that."

Ryan grinned. "That sounds amazing! I'm totally up for that. If the 'masculine' men don't wanna do that, then I guess the bottoms can go shopping and do whatever."

"Are you calling me a bottom?"

"Fuck no. Just if some of us don't wanna go shopping, they could do something and the others could shop."

"That's a cool idea." Josh said. "We should do that!"

"We should."

"Let's do it."

"Cool beans. We'll tell the others when they're up."

Ryan stood up. "Here, I'll wake the others up." He opened the door to the next room. "Frank, Ge–woah." He turned back to Josh. "They did some fucking last night." He nudged Frank's shoulder.

Frank opened his eyes. "Oh, hey Ryan."

"Nice dick!" Brendon shouted behind Ryan.

"Thanks dude."

"No homo though."

"No. Only homo for Gerard."

"How loyal."

Josh cleared his throat. "So, Ryan and I came up with some plans for today. We could go shopping, and whoever doesn't wanna go shopping can do something else, then after we can all meet up to eat."

"All of us wanna go shopping, Ryan."

"Brendon, Gerard might not want to..."

"Fuck yes. Can we also do some Rupaul shit? Fuck, I love Rupaul."

"Same! So we go shopping, then we go be stereotypical tourists to different sites, we can see a movie and then get something to eat?" Brendon asked.

"Yes bitch."

"Is that how you address me, little boy?" Brendon yelled, his hand lowering to Ryan's dick.

"... Daddy!" Ryan moaned, loudly.

"Good."

"Can we get dressed?" Gerard asked.

"After this, I don't think we have any secrets– nevermind, Friends is all that's on the TV right now and I have quotes in my head." Ryan said, dragging Josh and Brendon by the wrist out of the room.

"Let's go."

Frank smiled. "Thank you." He said, shutting the door. "I'm getting dressed."

"No shit."

"You know what they should have here?"

"Showers?"

"Showers."


	10. Chapter 10

Screaming came from outside of Frank's hotel room. Gerard opened the door and found Brendon streaking, running back and forth naked. He cleared his throat and looked at Brendon.

"Hey Beebo," they started,"put some pants on so we can go."

Josh came out of his room. "Oh god, I came out to be accepted as a person and for people to know I'm not straight, not to see Brendon's floppy, saggy dick."

"Who're you calling 'floppy, saggy dick?'"

"You. Now get dressed and let's go." 

"Ugh, fuck you."

Frank rolled his eyes. "C'mon guys, let's go."

"Okay, okay."

-

"Tell me again why you were ever allowed to drive a car?" Ryan asked once Brendon started driving.

Brendon scoffed. "I fucking drove you here, be fucking thankful that I'm–"

"That we're still alive? I'm surprised, honestly." 

"Are you saying you don't trust me?"

"I'm saying that–"

Josh facepalmed. "What the fuck guys, just starting drinking."

"Fine." Brendon said and started to drive. They made their way to the mall. "Who's coming with Gerard and I?"

"Me!" Ryan shouted. "Can we trust one of you to drive the van while we're gone?"

Frank nodded. "I can." He said as everyone began to unbuckle their seatbelts. Frank and Josh switched to the front seat and everybody else left the van.

"Bye Gee!" Frank waved. The other three went into the mall.

"Where are we going first?"

Gerard hummed. "Um, how about Hot Topic?"

"Yes bitch!" Brendon said and they went up the escalator to find Hot Topic. "Where would Hot Topic be?"

"Let's check the guide." Gerard said and his eyes wandered around the mall looking for the guide. "Hot Topic is downstairs you fucks."

They went back down the escalator. After walking around the mall, they found Hot Topic and went in. "I'm gonna look at the dresses." Ryan said and left to the section with dresses.

Dallon texted me when I woke up today and asked for 'eyeliner.' I told him it's called guyliner and told me to never call it 'guyliner' again." Brendon said.

"I'll go with you to get it." They followed Brendon to the eyeliner rack. "What kind does he like? Does he put it on his waterline _only_? Or does he do little or big wings on his eyelid?"

"He likes to put it on his waterline. Don't tell him, but I'm gonna wear it before he does while we're here. Ryan probably will too."

"I'm getting some for myself. Does he like pencil or liquid eyeliner?"

"Pencil. Shows up more on his waterline. I'll also get some liquid for myself."

"I will too. But I'm getting pencil. Maybe some pencil for my roommate."

Gerard grabbed the eyeliner pencils and left to find Ryan. "Hey, what size are you?" Ryan asked. "I'm getting you a medium, I have to get a large because I'm so damn tall."

"Uh, I'm a medium?" 

"Well, now you are!" Ryan smiled and handed them a black and red dress. "Can we go to another store across from here? It sells cute dresses and makeup!"

"Do you ever wear dresses?"

"I used to before I moved to New Jersey– the people there threatened to kill me if I ever wore a skirt again."

"You know that's just a threat, right Ry?"

"You never know, they are transphobic enough to do that."

"Yeah, I guess. But we're in New York for a week, you can wear it, right?"

Ryan nodded. "You're right. I also might some heels to go with it– and some sequined flats!"

Gerard high fived Ryan. "Let's go; after we pay for this stuff!" 

-

"What do we do while we're out?" Josh asked. 

"Uh, I don't know. Do you wanna see a movie?"

"Don't you always watch movies?"

"No." Josh rolled down the window and stuck his head out. "Are you a dog?"

"Woof woof, daddy." He chuckled. "Brendon is probably gonna go to a sex shop and get dildos."

"He should get the dildos then hold a C note for thirty seconds while running across the hallway throwing them everywhere."

"I'd participate in that shit." 

"Josh, text him and tell him to do that."

"Gladly."

josh: hey beebo can u go to a sex shop like spencers or something and get 20-30 dildos

brendon: oh yea bro u feelin lonely so u want me 2 get u sex toys?

josh: um no

josh: i want u to get 20-30 dildos so we can run through the halls of the hotel while holding a 

"High D?" Josh asked.

Frank shook his head. "C."

josh: holding a high C and throwing the dildos around

brendon: oh yea lets all do that

brendon: frank come up with that?

josh: yup

brendon: ok dude i got it. after we're done looking through this drag store i'll get some

josh: make sure one of them is rainbow

brendon: gotcha

Brendon laughed at the texts. "What's so funny?" Gerard asked. Brendon showed them the texts and Gerard started laughing, then took the phone and showed it to Ryan.

"We're definitely doing that when we get to the hotel. Should we wake everyone up at one AM by doing that?"

"Definitely." 

Brendon stopped Gerard and Ryan from walking into a store and pointed to the store behind the two. It was a black room and a grey floor, a brick design on the exterior. There were posters in the window that looked like a  _modest_ Playboy. Modest.

The store name was above the door. _Spencer's._ Brendon clapped rapidly and ran into the store. "Hello sir." He said in a sultry voice. "Show me your collection of high tech sex toys."

The cashier quirked his right eyebrow and gestured for Brendon to follow him to the back. Soon after, Ryan and Gerard came into the store, finding Brendon and the employee.

"Do you have a... Do you have a rainbow dildo? Strap-ons are okay, but all of us including Josh and Frank is a 'lil too much dick. Let's just get that pink, twisty dildo and the huge rainbow dildo."

Gerard's eyes skimmed through the sex toys. "Why not get the dildo with sparkles?" He turned his head to the employee.

"Wouldn't that hurt? Like, random patches of sequins going up your ass or your vagina?"

The employee nodded. "Probably. But if you're into painplay, then this is the dildo for you." Ryan immediately grabbed the sparkled dildo from Gerard. 

"Painplay. Brendon, after our _activity_ with the others, can we try this out by ourselves?"

"Could you not call it an activity?" Gerard groaned.

Brendon shrugged. "I mean, if you want to, little boy."

"Thanks, _Daddy_!" Ryan cheered then bowed his head in shame after seeing Gerard roll his eyes.

"Do you and Frank need a dildo, Gerard?"

"No. We have plenty."

Brendon chose more dildos and the quartet approached the same employee. "Is this all for today?"

"Yep! Thank you..." Brendon read the employee's nametag,"thank you Spencer. Ah ha! _Spencer_ works at _Spencer's_!"

"Ha ha."

"What's your last name? Spencer?"

Gerard facepalmed. "Who in the right mind would name their child Spencer Spencer and let that child work at Spencer's? No offence." He said to Spencer.

"Thank you; and it's Smith, actually. No relation to Jon Walker, though. We are good friends."

"That didn't make sense... Whatever, thanks for helping us." Ryan beamed.

"Have a good day."

brendon: we have the dildos

"We ready to go eat lunch?" There were drones of 'yeah,' 'sure,' and 'okay's'.

brendon: we're ready

josh: we'll pick u up in five-ish

Frank chewed his bottom lip. "Josh?"

"Hm?"

"We literally just drove around New York for the past two hours. Doing nothing. We need to make up a cool story about how we did epic stuff."

"As much as I love doing 'epic stuff,' I can't come up with anything."

"Let's just say that we went somewhere like a tourist site."

"Okay, okay, good idea."

-

The other three jumped into the van and sat in one of the seats. "So, you got the dildos?" Josh asked. Brendon showed him the large Spencer's bag.  

"What did you guys do when we were at the mall?"

"Um, we went sight seeing."

"Wouldn't you have like, souvenirs with you?"

"They actually uh, let you have an option with you um, being able to choose if you want a souvenir or not?"

"Don't they already have that?"

"You're acting like you were there with us."

"What did you actually do while we were gone?"

"Absolutely nothing."

"It's true I'm the nothing."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote this shit while rocking OuT to k-pop


	11. Chapter 11

The group arrived at a bistro they found off of Google that was rated four stars. Ryan whispered something in Brendon's ear, and he began to snigger. Brendon nodded and his boyfriend smacked his arm playfully, shaking his head. Brendon pointed at a table for two in the corner and Ryan nodded.

"Wow, way to abandon us, guys." Josh deadpanned. "I thought we were eating lunch together."

"Oh yeah, sorry. _Ryan_ here forgot that we were eating together." 

"Sure he did." Brendon ignored Frank's remark and clasped Ryan's hand, and went to the table in the corner.

Gerard followed and joined them at the table, pulling a chair towards the table. Josh and Frank did the same. "Can we have our alone time, my dude?" Brendon asked.

"No, not really." 

Josh handed Brendon a piece of paper. "This is our tactic. For tonight."

"Plan D."

"D?"

"Plan Dildo, my friend. Plan dildo."

"Oh, okay. I'm liking this plan already." Ryan rubbed his hands together, as if he were scheming some devious plan. "First, we're going to separate to different bases. That's different floors, we go to different corners. Frank and Gerard will be on the first floor, Brendon and I are on the second, and Josh, you will switch to different floors."

"I'm not versatile though." Josh _joshed._

"Shut up. We will scream, moan loudly, groan, grunt, make as much noise as possible–"

"May I... take your orders?" The waitress greeted in a shocked tone of voice. Still, she kept a smile upon her face.

"One second, bitch." Brendon held a hand up to her. Gerard glared at him, whacking his hand down and politely returning the smile.

"I'll have a cappuccino and a mini cheese pizza." 

"Cappuccino? Gerard, I knew that you are feminine but not that you're a white girl."

"Shut up. He'll have water and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

"Peanut butter? Fuck me up."

"I could totally go for some Reeses right now."

"Reeses puffs, reeses puffs."

"I'll have a veggie burger and water." Frank said.

"Me too." Josh added. 

"Okay!" The waitress put on a fake smile and left. 

"Wanna leave a dildo under the table as a 'thank you–for–the–good–service reward?"

"Only if it's good service. If it's bad service, then we leave a strap-on."

"What if a lesbian finds it?"

"Then it's a good day for her." Brendon concluded. "Here's a list of the type of dildos or different sex toys that you can choose from. Different colors, textures, you name it!"

"There's for each of the five of us, so we can choose eight individually since altogether we have forty."

"Damn, who knew Ryan Ross was a math genius?" Josh teased Ryan and Brendon held his boyfriend close.

"So proud. Can't believe he knows more than me." Brendon kissed the top of his head.

"Um, I used a calculator for this."

"... Shame on you, Ry." The waitress put their plates on the table. 

"Why are you guys throwing dildos around in your hotel?" 

"They have shitty service in the hotel!"

"Seriously, dude. It sucks ass there." 

"Honestly."

The waitress awkwardly laughed at their comments and left the table. "Can we do drag tomorrow and walk around the city?"

Brendon asked after a moment of silence. "Yes! Oh my fucking God this is beautiful. Can't wait. New favorite plans, you have amazing ideas, Brendon." He began to congratulate himself.

"Good for you, Bren."

-

The drive home consisted of Gerard trying to peek through the bags of dildos while they weren't supposed to, Frank keeping Gerard from looking, Brendon and Ryan in some deep conversation about conspiracy theories, including the Britney Spears, and Josh was asleep.

When they got to the hotel, Brendon instantly set an alarm to wake him up and to wake the others up at midnight. Frank decided to take a shower while Gerard texted his brother.

Mikey: wait what the fuck are you doing gerard

Gerard: i'm definitely fucking going to throw dildos around the hotel at midnight

Mikey: isnt that vandalism 

Gerard: it's not graffiti 

Gerard: we're seeing how long it takes until we're kicked out

Mikey: gerard this is a really stupid idea

Mikey: are these actually people you wanna be hanging out with?

Mikey: i know it's your life but

Mikey: they kind of sound immature 

Mikey: think about if they're good influences on you

Gerard: god damn it Mikey

Gerard: you don't control my life

Gerard: and fyi they are really nice people

Mikey: fine. i guess you'll have LOTS of fun with these guys

Gerard: fuck you. i'm going to sleep. night

Mikey: it's not even six yet

Gerard turned his phone off and slammed it onto the bed. The sound of running water turned off and only a few minutes later Frank opened the door with his towel wrapped around his waist.

"What's wrong?" He asked. 

"My brother is just being an asshole."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Frank said and kissed his cheek. "Why don't you calm down and we can watch Netflix or something."

"Okay. Good idea."

"Shit, they have the _Bee Movie_ on here."

"Frank, no. Let's not do that meme dirty."

"Okay, fine. How about _Orange Is The New Black_?"

"It's good, but when the lesbians start to have sex every other five minutes remind me to cover my eyes."

"Don't worry."

-

_11: 55 PM_

_11: 56 PM_

_11: 57 PM_

_11: 58 PM_

_11: 59 PM_

_12: 00 PM_

Brendon's alarm screamed loudly and woke him up. "Wake up!" He shook Ryan and pushed him off the bed, Josh ran in to see what had happened and remembered what was going on after a minute.

Gerard and Frank lazily walked into the bedroom and sat on the floor where the others were in a circle. Gerard picked the sparkly dildo from earlier and chose several more, the rest following his actions.

They had split up and were on different floors now, waiting for the signal. They each had their phones in case somebody called them. Brendon took a deep breath before shouting "dildo me up, Daddy!"

At that moment, they had all began to run and throw the dildos across the corridors. Gerard gripped onto the sparkly dildo and rubbed it against the wall separating a room and where they stood.

"I love dick." Brendon's voice echoed throughout the hotel. Josh pressed the button to go up a few floors in the elevator, but it stopped midway before a group of women probably going out to a club entered. 

"Hi. Are all of you the heterosexual women I've heard of?"

"We're straight women, yes."

"Ah." He said and when the doors opened again on the second floor, he threw multiple dildos at their feet, careful not to hit their faces. "Then I assume you like dick!" He said and ran out.

Brendon and Ryan were sword fighting each other with vibrators that were turned on, pretending that they were vibrators. "Ya! Ya!" 

"Oh, hey Josh." Frank greeted, as he and Gerard were tossing a gag back and forth. 

"I didn't know we could choose from other BDSM toys!"

"We couldn't! I stole this from Brendon."

"Nice." Frank's phone buzzed. "I got a text from Brendon."

"What does it say?"

"'Frank, I need you to tell Gerard to come up to my room. A security guard is near us and is saying that they are looking for whoever did this. They're about to come down to the second floor and look for you. Get in here quickly.'"

"I just got the same text from Brendon."

"What are we doing here then, though? Let's go!" 

As soon as they ran into Ryan's room, they saw nobody. "What? I thought that they said they would be in here..."

Brendon and Ryan _came out of the closet_ and threw dildos at them. "Is that my gag you're holding? Bitch!"

Brendon grabbed it and Ryan clapped his hands together. "Go Daddy!" He cheered. 

"Tone down the kink, Ryan."

Ryan laughed and patted Gerard's back. "Never." Gerard chuckled and moved away slightly. Ryan's eyebrow slightly raised up at his random discomfort but shrugged it off. Frank smiled sadly but didn't say anything. 

"Are we done for tonight?"

"Do you have anymore dildos?"

"No."

"Neither do I."

"Same."

"Ryan and I don't either. I guess our work here is done!" Everybody high fived.

Gerard smiled. "Have a nice sleep guys." 

-

At about three AM, Josh woke up. "We didn't leave a strap-on under the table!" He screamed and started to cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i shouldn't do this but i blame my ADHD for distracting me from watching this


End file.
